An Unexpected Invitation

There I was, 22 going on 23, having just spent four years getting an honours degree from a good university, and now I was spending the summer mowing lawns for a contractor who barely paid the minimum wage and working as an unpaid helper for a political party whose policies I was no longer sure that I supported. It wasn't the career start that I had hoped for.

On the day that Millicent Martin summoned me to her door, I had started work shortly before seven. There was a heavy rain warning for the south-east, and I wanted to get a few lawns completed before the rain came. If I wasn't mowing lawns, I wasn't being paid. I sort of assumed that Mrs Martin was going to complain about me disturbing the peace and quiet of the entire village at such an early hour.

'Trying to beat the weather?' she said.

'Well, they're predicting up to a hundred millimetres of rain,' I told her.

She nodded. 'Summer weather, eh? Oh, well, Wimbledon next week. Just as well there's a roof over the centre court these days.'

There was no mention of me disturbing the early morning peace and quiet of the entire village. Oh, well.

'Now David ... It is David, isn't it?'

'It is,' I said.

'Good. Now .. tell me, do you live locally?'

'Eastmarsh,' I said.

'Oh, good. This just gets better and better. Just down the road. Perfect. Yes, perfect. Now David, I'd like you to come and have supper with me tonight,' she said. 'My niece will be here. I think that you two might get along. I'm sorry about the short notice. But ... well ... you know. Shall we say seven?'

'Me?'

'Yes.'

'Tonight?' I said.

'Tonight. Yes. As I say ... I know it's short notice, but ... well, I wasn't quite sure how to get hold of you - other that going through whatshisname. Oh ... and I assume you are not a vegetarian or anything like that.'

'Umm ... no. I guess you'd say that I was a bit of an omnivore actually.'

She smiled. 'Yes. I rather assumed so. Strictly casual,' she said. 'Socks are optional.' And she laughed.

I was supposed to be handing out leaflets at a party political event that evening but, as I've already mentioned, I was fast falling out of love with both the party and its policies. It wasn't a hard decision. 'Umm ... yeah. OK. Thank you, Mrs Martin,' I said. 'I shall be here at seven.'

'Milly,' she said.

The promised rain didn't arrive until shortly after midday. But when it did arrive, it bucketed down. For an hour or so, I sat in my van and waited to see if it would stop. But, eventually, I called it a day and headed for home. Even if the rain did stop, the lawns would be too water-logged to be mown without damaging them.

I must confess that I am not very good at guessing people's ages, But I would say that Millicent - Milly - Martin was in her early 50s. A well-preserved fifty-two? Fifty three? Something like that. And while she was not someone who you would describe as pretty, she was certainly handsome. Also, she dressed with great style. When I arrived at her door, more or less on the dot of seven, she answered wearing a fullish three-quarter length floral skirt and a plain pink silky T-shirt. To complete her outfit, she had on an elegant pair of strappy sandals that looked as if they might have cost two or three time as much as a decent pair of work boots.

'Oh, perfect,' she said. 'Perfect. Yes.' And to my complete surprise she gave me a little hug and a kiss on the cheek. 'Come on through.'

I followed Mrs Martin - Milly - through the house to the spacious farmhouse-style kitchen which opened out onto a walled courtyard.

'Gosh. This is nice,' I said.

'I was hoping that we might be able to eat outside,' Milly said. 'What do you think? Has that rain moved on? Or is there more yet to come?' And before I had a chance to answer, we were joined by a young woman who looked vaguely familiar.

'I let myself in,' the young woman said. And then, seeing me, she held her hand out and said: 'Hello. I'm Amber.'

'David,' I said.

Milly and Amber hugged each other. And then Milly said: 'David and I were just trying to decide if it would be safe to eat outside. What do you think?'

Amber walked out into the courtyard and looked up at the sky. 'Well ... there's enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers,' she said. 'Granddad always used to say that that was more than enough. And I think what breeze there is is now coming from the west.'

'Well, we can always move back inside if ... you know,' Milly said. 'Now ... there's wine in the fridge. If you could just look after that please, Amber. I'll just finish off a couple of things. Oh ... I assume you'll have wine, David. I also have beer in the fridge, if you'd prefer.'

I told Milly that wine would be fine.

'And the chairs may need a bit of a wipe down,' she said. And she tossed me a towel.

The courtyard was about half the size of a tennis court and it was totally surrounded by a high Kentish brick wall. Above the wall, there were glimpses of the roofs of adjacent houses, but no windows overlooked the paved and planted sanctuary. 'This is very private,' I said.

Milly, who was standing at the hob, smiled and nodded. 'If you ever need an all-over tan,' she said.

Amber brought me a glass of wine. 'Cheers,' she said.

'Yes. Cheers.'

'Milly tells me you pilot a lawn mower for a living,' Amber said.

'For the moment.'

Amber smiled. 'Ah. But you have plans?'

'I thought I did,' I said. 'But now I'm not so sure.'

'Oh?'

'I thought that I would do something in politics. Help to make the world a better place. But the more I get to peep behind the curtain, the more I wonder if politicians aren't just interested in making the world a better place for politicians.'

Amber laughed. 'Yes. I know what you mean.'

'And how do you fill in your day?' I asked.

'I run a second-hand book shop. Benjamin's Books.'

Of course. That's where I had seen Amber before. Benjamin's Books. 'Gosh, second-hand books. That must be a hard way to make a living in this era of Amazon and on-line everything.'

'You are not wrong. In fact, I think it may be an impossible way to make a living. Fortunately, my grandfather pays me from beyond the grave - so to speak. He is - or was - Benjamin. He was passionate about keeping real books in circulation. Before he died, he set up a trust. The trust is what allows me to keep Benjamin's Books going. Without it ...'

And then Milly joined us. 'Nearly there. How are you two going?' she asked. Then, without waiting for an answer, she looked up at the sky. 'Yes. We can at least start out here, can't we? It's certainly warm enough.'

Supper was a paella-type dish. Chicken, prawns, chorizo, peas, rice, and lots of rosemary. Absolutely delicious. Milly claimed that she couldn't do 'clever' food; but it seemed pretty clever to me. 'This is brilliant,' I said.

Milly smiled and squeezed my hand. 'Thank you, David. I'm not sure that I would go so far as to say brilliant. But it does taste all right, doesn't it?'

It certainly did. And to follow the paella we had grilled peaches with homemade vanilla ice cream. Again, I thought that making your own ice cream was pretty clever too.

And then we cleared away the dishes and went inside.

'So ... what do you think?' Milly asked Amber as she opened a second bottle of wine and topped up our glasses.

Amber smiled and nodded. 'Yes. I'm definitely a starter,' she said. 'You'd better ask David.'

Better ask David what, I wondered.

'Let me think. Where do I begin?' Milly said. And then she said: 'Sex.'

'Sex?' I said.

'Yes. You know ... sex. Cunts and cocks. Sometimes one inside the other. Fingers, of course. And tongues. Well, anything really. But cunts and cocks in particular.'

Cunts and cocks? I must confess that, for a moment or two, I felt that I might have stepped into a parallel universe.

'I take it that you're a fan,' Milly said.

'Well ...'

'I sort of assumed that you would be,' she said. 'A well-built lad like you.'

I still wasn't sure what the question was.

'I was probably somewhere about your age when I first saw someone else doing it,' she said. 'Right in front of me. My first reaction - from what I remember - was: what the ...? But then I realised that it was one of the most arousing things that I had ever seen.

'It was at a party hosted by some people from the tennis club. There were quite a few people there. Thirty perhaps? It was the first time that I had been in the hosts' house, and I had gone off looking for the loo. But I must have taken a wrong turn because, next thing I knew, I was walking into a bedroom where there were two people, naked from the waist down, and they were ... well ... as I say ... they were doing it. Going at it hammer and tongs.

'At first I just stood there, feeling a bit embarrassed, I suppose. And then I thought: Wow! This is such a turn-on. And, suddenly, without really thinking about it, had my skirt up and my hand down the front of my knickers. The lights were on. And the couple were only about six feet away. But they just totally ignored me and kept on fucking.'

As she told me this, Milly was looking in my direction, but I don't think she was actually looking at me. I think she was watching a replay of the scene in her mind.

'Eventually, and somewhat reluctantly, I left them to it,' Milly said. 'But I had to leave the party and go home to give myself a proper seeing to. You know.' And she waggled her pleasure finger in the region of her crotch.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Amber was smiling and gently nodding. I got the feeling that she had heard the story before.

Milly took a sip of her wine and then carried on. 'I remember that, for two or three weeks after that, I couldn't get the image out of my mind. And I wanted more. I even thought about tracking down the couple and seeing if we could work something out. But then I discovered that they were both married. And not to each other.

'And then, the next time I was up in London, I went to a bookshop that I'd seen in Soho. At street level, it was just a normal bookshop; but downstairs there was a R18 section that sold mainly VHS cassettes and adult toys. Dildos. Pocket pussies. That sort of thing. You know. I was standing there in front of a big display of videos, reading the front labels, when the guy who seemed to be in charge came up and asked me if I was looking for anything in particular.'

'Something for you and your boyfriend?' he said.

'Umm ... just me, really,' I told him.

'He asked me a few other questions - couple, solo, male, female, young, old, big breasts, big dick. And I told him couple - but just normal.'

'OK. Well, this lot are all actors,' he said, pointing to the rack I was standing in front of. 'And, in my humble opinion, most of them are not even very good actors. But over here we have the amateurs. Personally, I think you get a lot more for your money with amateurs. They're certainly a lot more ... well ... normal.'

'So I bought a couple of tapes of amateur compilations and took them home. Fortunately, a university friend had moved to The States and given me his near-new VHS player. He said they had a different system in The States.

'The only problem with the amateurs was that the filming could sometimes be a bit amateurish too. But I could live with that. And, by the time the world had switched to DVD, I had built up quite a collection.

'When I got married, I thought that my husband would appreciate my collection. I envisaged us spending an evening, sipping wine, watching Duane and Brenda going for it in the bedroom of their Council house, while we mutually masturbated to a satisfactory conclusion. But it wasn't to be. And, after a couple of years, neither was our marriage.'

Milly stopped for another sip of wine.

'So,' Milly said, 'that's my secret. I'm a watcher. I'm a voyeur. That's what gets me off. Watching. Watching people fucking and sucking and whatever.'

'Right,' I said. (I didn't know what else to say.)

'I think that I would like to watch you and Amber fucking. In fact, I'm almost certain that I would like to watch you and Amber fucking. And, as you heard, Amber's a starter. Now it's just a question of whether you are, David.'

Was I? I looked across at Amber. She was certainly an attractive woman - probably a little older than me, but not much. 'You, umm ...'

Amber smiled. 'Oh, yes,' she said. 'I'm a starter.'

'And when would we ...?' I asked Milly. 'I mean ... are you thinking ... right now?'

'If you like,' she said. 'Up to you. But if you two wanted to have a ... umm ... bit of a private rehearsal first, then, yes, I could understand that. As I say, up to you.'

At university, one of the pol-sci profs had been in the habit of walking into the room, scribbling an idea on the whiteboard, and then asking someone to SWOT analyse what he had written. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the idea? What opportunities and threats did it present? That's what I was doing as Milly, Amber, and I sipped our post-prandial wine.

One of the strengths was that I would be having sex with another human being. That would be good. It had been a bit of a lean time since Janet and I had broken up. For almost six months, I had been reduced to Mrs Palmer and five daughters, while contemplating electronic images. The only weakness I could see was that Amber and I might not be very good together. It was an outside chance, but ... And of course, we wouldn't know that until we tried.

The main opportunity was that it might lead to something beyond a simple no-strings-attached fuck. And threats? Well, there didn't seem to be any obvious ones - other than incompatibility. And, again, as I said, we wouldn't know that until we had tried.

'Yeah. I'm a starter,' I said. 'And I guess I'm ready when you are,' I told Amber.

Amber and Milly looked at each other and smiled and nodded. I got the feeling that there was an element of relief in Milly's smile. 'Excellent,' she said. 'Yes. Excellent.'

'Were you worried that I was going to say no?' I said.

'Well ... I hoped that you weren't. Going to say no, I mean. But some people might find it a bit weird that a woman of my age would get off on watching other people fucking.'

'Weird?' I said. 'No. Not really. What is it they say? Different folk, different strokes?'

Milly nodded. 'I hoped that you might see it like that. We should go through to the bedroom,' she said. 'And we should probably take the rest of the wine with us.'

Amber got up from her chair and came across and kissed me. On the lips. 'I think this is going to be fun,' she said softly.

We followed Milly through the house to a spacious well-lit bedroom. (Well, I don't suppose there would have been much point in doing it in the dark.) The bedroom was very neat and tidy - a bit like a bedroom in a five-star hotel just after the housekeeper had finished her inspection.

The room was set up like a normal bedroom. There was a queen-sized bed, bedside tables, a chest of drawers, and, in one corner, a small table with two chairs. Milly got one the chairs and positioned it near the foot of the bed but to one side. 'And I think I'll take my skirt off,' she said. 'It'll be easier that way.' I think that Amber and I took that as a sign that we were supposed to start.

Amber was wearing a loose-fitting black T-shirt bearing the gold legend: Never judge a book by its cover. I decided that that could be the first thing to go. 'And if the book has no dust jacket?' I asked.

'I see what you mean,' she said. 'Perhaps you don't need a shirt either.'

'Perhaps you are right,' I said. And then we were both shirtless. Amber's jeans were next to go.

If I had had a few days' notice - even a few hours' notice - that all this was going to happen, I might have formed a picture in my mind of what Amber, dressed in just a bra and knickers, might have looked like. But it had all happened unexpectedly. However, I was by no means disappointed.

Amber had what might be described as an 'athletic' body. Her breasts, while not small, were certainly not large. And her waist and hips were verging on being boyish. Her matching bra and knickers would not have looked totally out of place on a beach. I could imagine that her aunt might have suggested to her that she 'wear something sexy but not too fussy'.

We kissed - which was pretty nice - and then it was time to lower her knickers and leave her with just her bra. (I don't know why, but I think there is something very sexy about a woman wearing just a bra.) I was pleased to discover a proper grown-up patch of pubic hair, trimmed, but not too severely.

'And now I think that you are still slightly over-dressed,' Amber said. 'Milly did say cunts and cocks. Or was it the other way around?'

As Amber lowered my briefs and my hardening cock sprang free, I glanced across at Milly. She had her hand down the front of her knickers. And she was smiling.

Had it been up to me, I would have been more than happy to engage in a round or two of cunnilingus. But Amber seemed keen that we should get down to a bit of carnal penetration as soon as possible. I figured that she was more likely than I to know what Milly would want to see - and in what order - and so, while she took my cock in hand, I briefly fingered her cuntal valley. It was already getting wet.

Amber lay back on the bed and spread her toned thighs. It seemed that we would be starting out in the good old-fashioned missionary position. 'Maybe a pillow under my bum,' she said. Yeah. I grabbed a pillow. That worked. And then I positioned myself, and Amber took my almost-hard cock and wiped it up and down her slick valley three or four times. And then ... we were in! Just like that. It felt very sexy indeed and, for a moment or two, I was worried that it was all going to be over before it began. But then we settled down.

'Hey, this all works,' I said, after we had been going at it for four or five minutes.

'Perfectly,' Amber said. 'Were you worried that it might not?'

'Well ... you know ...'

Amber just laughed. 'Time to give Milly a different view,' she said.

'Oh?'

'Doggy time.'

Yeah. We could do that, I thought.

'How are things in your corner, Milly?' Amber asked as we changed positions.

'Things in my corner are just dandy,' Milly said. 'Just dandy. You two are perfect. I don't know why I didn't think of you two before.'

With Milly sitting slightly astern of me, and me concentrating on the lovely Amber, I hadn't looked in her direction since Amber and I had got down to business. But now that I had the opportunity. I glanced across. Wow! She was now sitting on the front edge of the chair, her T-shirt pulled up, her knickers pulled down, her knees spread wide, and her fingers working her glistening, fur-fringed slot like a baker's dough hook working dough.. I know that we were supposed to be providing the stimulation for her, but, for a moment of two, I was worried that I was going to start firing spunk even before I had re-entered Amber. Happily, I managed to hold back.

Actually, as exciting as the prospect of re-entering Amber was, I found there was almost as much pleasure to be had from just kneeling there contemplating her delightful arse. All in all, it was quite a compact arse. Her pale buttocks were surprisingly toned. And she had quite a pronounced thigh gap. 'Are you a secret gym bunny?' I asked.

'I do try to get over there a couple of times a week,' Amber said.

'Well, it's certainly working,' I said.

'Oh, good.'

Amber had started out on her hands and knees, but then she dropped down onto her forearms and, suddenly, the stars were in perfect alignment. I spread her now very puffy labia and nudged the head of my cock into the entrance to her slick cunt. And then I paused.

'Don't tease,' she said.